Election 2015: Gregory Campbell jubilant after ‘fantastic’ Westminster victory

A jubilant Gregory Campbell and his wife Frances in Templemore. DER1815MC127

The DUP’s Gregory Campbell has held his seat in East Derry, polling 14,663 votes out of a total 66,925 eligible votes.

Mr Campbell, who has held the seat since 2001, thanked his family and party colleagues and said he was always confident he would win.

Voter turnout was 52.24 per cent, down from 55.3 per cent in 2010. Total votes polled was 34,965.

Speaking after his win he said he was “exhilarated” with the 7,804 majority.

“When you get to the top of the tree you think ‘I must go down a bit’ but, we didn’t, we went up,” he said. “I was pretty confident we would win, but not by the margin we did. It was a fantastic achievement.”

Sinn Fein’s Caoimhe Archibald polled 6,859 votes; UUP’s William McCandless 5,333; SDLP ‘s Gerry Mullan 4,268; Alliance Yvonne Boyle 2, 642; Cannabis Safer Than Alcohol Neil Paine, 527 and Conservatives Elizabeth Anne St Clair, 422 votes.

There were 251 rejected votes.